People around the country love to put the knock on SEC football for being overrated. Here are the teams which have been the most guilty of that label in the last 10 years.
Is SEC football overrated? On the whole…probably not…maybe a little…well, kinda. To be honest, there are overrated teams in every conference, but unfortunately the SEC catches the brunt of the fan frustration because of the spotlight placed on the conference.
Taking a look at rankings for the last 10 years – starting with 2007 – we took AP preseason rankings and final AP rankings to see which programs were possibly getting the benefit of the doubt more often than not from voters.
A few things we learned from this process weren’t surprising. Alabama isn’t really overrated at all, with an overall .88 average differential (in the positive) from their preseason rankings to the final ranks. Another not so shocking fact – Alabama is the only program to finish with a positive number.
We also (as expected) found out that Vanderbilt isn’t overrated or underrated, which makes sense since the only two times they appeared in the AP rankings during the last decade were in 2012 and 2013, finishing 23rd and 24th respectively. Same for Kentucky, who hasn’t started or finished in the AP Top 25 since 1984.
However, we did find a handful of teams who seem to disappoint more often than not when compared to preseason rankings, and here they are.
Note – For purposes of this list, teams must have appeared in the AP preseason poll at least five times since 2007. Teams with negative average differential who had less than five appearances were:
Texas A&M -3.75 (Four appearances, two with SEC)
South Carolina -2.75 (Four appearances)
Missouri -2.50 (Four appearances, two with SEC)
Mississippi State -6 (One appearance)
Ole Miss -4.75 (Four appearances)